MassBio Board of Directors

Geoffrey F. Cox, Ph.D.
Chairman

Dr. Cox serves as Chairman, President and CEO of GTC Biotherapeutics, Inc. and has more than 35 years of pharmaceutical and biotechnology experience. In 1984, Dr. Cox joined Genzyme Corporation in the U.K. and then became Senior Vice President, Operations in the U.S. in 1988. Dr. Cox later became Executive Vice President responsible for operations and the pharmaceutical, diagnostic and genetics business units of Genzyme. Prior to joining Genzyme, Dr. Cox was General Manager of U.K. manufacturing operations for Gist-Brocades. In 1997, Dr. Cox became Chairman and CEO of Aronex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., based in Woodlands, Texas, and subsequently, in July 2001, became Chairman, President and CEO of GTC Biotherapeutics. Dr. Cox is non executive Chairman of the Board of Nabi Biopharmaceuticals.  He is a member of the Board of Biotechnology Industry Organization and also a member of their Emerging Companies Section and Healthcare Section Governing Body Committees.  Dr. Cox received a B.Sc. (Hons) in Biochemistry from the University of Birmingham U.K. and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of East Anglia, U.K.

Geoff MacKay
Vice Chairman

Mr. MacKay serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of Canton-based Organogenesis. He has served in his current leadership role since December 2003. Mr. MacKay provides Organogenesis with significant global, commercial experience spanning the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors. Mr. MacKay has held numerous leadership positions within Novartis AG in roles such as Vice-President and Business Unit Head, Transplantation and Immunology at Novartis Canada, Vice-President of Tissue-Engineering in Novartis USA, Head of Global Sales Immunology and Transplantation based in Basel, Switzerland, and prior to that as Sales and Marketing Manager of Novartis Biotech Europe. Mr. MacKay has been specifically involved in the emerging field of regenerative medicine for the last decade.

Michael O'Hara
Treasurer

Mr. O'Hara is a partner and leads the life sciences audit practice of Deloitte in Boston.  In addition to serving many life sciences companies in various capacities, Mr. O'Hara also serves as audit partner for publicly traded and private life sciences companies and a large integrated healthcare system, and therefore has a comprehensive understanding of the healthcare industry.  Mr. O'Hara has been involved in several IPOs, mergers and acquisitions engagements, financial forecasting projects, and value-added projects on accounting and financial reporting.  Mr. O'Hara has assisted his clients through product launches and rapid growth phases including advising on financial and operational infrastructure challenges.  In addition to his role as Treasurer of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, Mr. O'Hara is a member of the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Medical Device Industry Council (MassMEDIC) and the Medfield Youth Hockey Association.  He is also a member of the AICPA and the Massachusetts Society of CPAs and is an adjunct professor of accounting and auditing at Boston College.

Mr. O'Hara received his BA from Oneonta State University and his MBA from Boston College.  He lives in Medfield, MA with his wife Maryclare, son Liam and daughter Maeve.

Glenn Batchelder
Clerk

Mr. Batchelder serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of BIND Biosciences. Prior to joining BIND Biosciences, Mr. Batchelder was CEO of Acceleron Pharma, a company developing biotherapeutics for cancer and musculoskeletal disorders.  He grew Acceleron from a research start-up to a clinical stage company with promising bone loss therapy in the clinic and a robust preclinical pipeline.

Prior to Acceleron, Mr. Batchelder was Senior Vice President of Operations at Millennium Pharmaceuticals where he played an integral leadership role in the launch of VELCADE and was responsible for the commercial supply chain and technical operations for INTEGRILIN.

Mr. Batchelder received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Lehigh University.

Mark Leuchtenberger
Immediate Past Chairman

Mr. Leuchtenberger has been Chairman of the MassBio board since 2008 and serves as CEO at Rib-X Pharmaceuticals. Prior to that position, heserved as President & Chief Executive Officer of Targanta Therapeutics Corporation and led the company's successful IPO in 2007, and acquisition in 2009. He joined Targanta from Therion Biologics Corporation, a privately-held cancer vaccine company, where he served as President and Chief Executive Officer from 2002 to 2006. Under his leadership, Therion filed its first IND, progressed through Phase 3 trials, completed the buildup of its commercial manufacturing capabilities, and raised over $120 million in three rounds of private financing.

Prior to joining Therion, Mr. Leuchtenberger was a senior officer at Biogen, where he served as Vice President, International from 1999-2002. In this capacity, he led all commercial operations outside of North America. He joined Biogen in 1990 and was responsible for managing the late-stage development, registration, marketing, and North American launch of Avonex®. He subsequently served as Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Business Development, where he oversaw North American commercial operations as well as Biogen's global market, licensing and strategic partnership activities. Prior to Biogen, Mr. Leuchtenberger worked as a Senior Consultant at Bain and Company specializing in healthcare products and services.

Mr. Leuchtenberger received an M.B.A. from the Yale School of Management and a B.A. from Wake Forest University. He currently serves on boards for Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Wake Forest University.

Mark R. Bamforth

Mr. Bamforth serves as Senior Vice President, Corporate Operations and Pharmaceuticals at Genyzme. He joined Genzyme in 1988 and is responsible for Genzyme's global manufacturing operations and strategic capacity planning as well as the Pharmaceuticals business. Prior to 2000, Mr. Bamforth ran Genzyme's United Kingdom operations. Before joining Genzyme, Mr. Bamforth worked as a drilling engineer in the North Sea offshore oil industry and then as a chemical engineer in the whisky industry in Scotland. Mr. Bamforth has an M.B.A. from Henley Business School and a B.Sc. Honours in chemical engineering from Strathclyde University.

Dr. Abbie Celniker, Ph.D.

Dr. Celniker is the CEO of Taligen Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of drugs to treat severe inflammatory diseases through the modulation of the complement system. Dr. Celniker has been in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry for almost 25 years where she has worked in small and mid-sized biotechnology companies as well as mid-sized and large pharmaceutical companies. Prior to joining Taligen, Dr. Celniker was the Global Head of Novartis Biologics where she was responsible the oversight of the discovery and development of the Novartis biologics pipeline. Prior to this role at Novartis, Dr. Celniker was the Global Head of the  Program Office for the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR)  where she was responsible for the global integration and oversight of the Novartis Discovery Portfolio. In a previous role at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Celniker led the pipeline portfolio review committee and headed Development Project Management and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Prior to Millennium, Dr. Celniker was at Wyeth, where she was assistant vice president for predevelopment and biopharmaceutical core technologies. She has previously held positions at Genetics Institute, Genentech Inc. and the University of Arizona Cancer Center. Dr. Celniker has a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of California at San Diego and earned her Ph.D. in molecular biology at the University of Arizona.

Errol DeSouza

Dr. DeSouza has nearly two decades of experience in the field of drug discovery and development. From April 2003 to January 2009, Dr. DeSouza was president and chief executive officer of Archemix Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company focused on aptamer therapeutics. From September 2002 to March 2003, he was president and chief executive officer and a director of Synaptic Pharmaceuticals. As a result of a merger effective March 2003, Synaptic Pharmaceuticals became a wholly-owned subsidiary of H. Lundbeck A/S, an international pharmaceutical company. Prior to that, Dr. DeSouza held senior management positions with Aventis, and its predecessor company Hoechst Marion Roussel Pharmaceuticals, and was co-founder of Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc.

He is currently a director of Archemix Corporation, Bionomics Limited, Palatin Technologies, Inc., and Targacept,  Inc.  Dr. DeSouza received his B.A. (Honors) in physiology and his Ph.D. in neuroendocrinology from the University of Toronto and he received his postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience from The John Hopkins School of Medicine.

Jeffrey Elton

Jeff Elton has 20 years of experience as a consultant, executive, and investor in the biopharmaceutical and biomedical sectors. He is the founder, vice chairman, and CEO of KEW Group, LLC a newly formed Personalized Medicine and oncology care delivery company; faculty member at Boston University School of Management; and advisor to a number of mature and early stage life science companies.

Prior to founding KEW Group, Mr. Elton was Senior Vice President of Strategy and Global Chief Operating Officer at Novartis Institutes of BioMedical Research, Inc. (NIBR) in Cambridge, MA.  He led the definition of disease area, research partnership, and global operations strategies. Mr. Elton oversaw all NIBR operations in the US, Europe, and Asia, responsible for Finance, Human Resources, Legal, Patents, Business Development, Information Technology, Research Operations, Facilities, and Strategy & Operations, Security, and Communications.  Before Novartis, Mr. Elton was a partner with McKinsey & Company PMP and Intellectual Property/Strategy practices, and has been published in Harvard Business Review, McKinsey Quarterly, Radiology, In Vivo and other noted publications.

Mr. Elton is a member of the advisory board of the Harvard Medical School - Partners Healthcare Center for Genetics and Genomics; a member of the advisory board of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Start Up Initiative; executive committee and board member of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation; and overseer of the DeCordova Museum of Art.  He holds a Ph.D. in Business Economics and Marketing and an M.B.A. in Finance and Statistics from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

Jose-Carlos Gutierrez-Ramos, Ph.D.

Dr. Gutierrez is Senior Vice President and head of the BioTherapeutics Research Group, which includes three Research Units (RUs), the global Pharmacokinetics, Dynamics and Metabolism - New Biological Entities (PDM-NBE) department, and the Global BioTherapeutic Technologies (GBT) department.

Prior to joining Pfizer, Dr. Gutierrez was SVP and Head of the Immuno-inflammation Center for Drug Discovery (iiCEDD) at GSK. Dr. Gutierrez built the iiCEDD as a global group of "drug hunters"  that included biologists, chemists, pharmacologists, protein scientists and clinicians who were responsible for the discovery of drugs in that space all the way to Phase IIa (POC).

Prior to GSK he served at AMGEN Mountain View as Site Head and CSO. Previous to the AMGEN acquisition of Avidia he was the SVP of R&D, where he led a significant effort of novel protein therapeutics for autoimmune disease. Before his AVIDIA appointment, he served as CSO of Peptimmune Inc. in Cambridge where he was responsible for the development of peptide based therapeutics for autoimmune disease, including MS and diabetes. Before Peptimmune, Dr. Gutierrez served as Vice President, Inflammation at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, where he built and led a group of more than 150 scientists.

Dr. Gutierrez was also a faculty member at the Genetics department of Harvard Medical School, where he led a research team at the Center for Blood Research. Before coming to the US, he was member of the Basel Institute for Immunology in Basel, Switzerland and a fellow at the Max-Plank for Immunbiologie in Freiburg, Germany. Dr. Gutierrez received his masters in Chemistry and his Ph.D. in Immunology from the Autonoma University of Madrid, Spain.

Fereydoun Firouz

Mr. Firouz is President and CEO of EMD Serono, Inc. In this capacity, his responsibilities include driving the strategic direction of the US organization as well as managing the day-to-day operations of the US affiliate of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. He is a member of the Executive Management Committee of Merck Serono.

Previously, Mr. Firouz was Executive Vice President, Reproductive Health North America where he was responsible for re-engineering the sales and marketing organization for the company's US Reproductive Health business. From 1998 to 2001, Mr. Firouz was Vice President, Latin America for Serono S.A. where he oversaw the successful launches of a variety of products. Prior to his tenure in Latin America, Mr. Firouz held positions of increasing responsibility in Serono's IBO region as Director and ultimately Vice President where he was instrumental in creating new operating entities in Greece, Turkey, Israel, Central Europe and the Middle East. Mr. Firouz began his career at Serono in 1989 as a Government Affairs Associate in the company's Washington, DC office.

Mr. Firouz is an active participant and Board member of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) and Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). Under his leadership, EMD Serono has been the recipient of numerous corporate awards including most recently the Boston Business Journal's Corporate Philanthropy Award given to companies in the Boston area with exceptional charitable programs.

Mr. Firouz received his Bachelor of Science in political science from George Washington University in Washington, DC. He has also participated in a number of executive education programs including the Executive Program on General Management at the F. W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College. His leisure interests include skiing, squash, filmmaking and art.

Scott Gillis

Mr. Gillis is an independent consultant with more than 35 years' experience in the pharmaceutical and medical device industry in capacities ranging from pharmaceutical sales and senior sales and marketing positions to general management with extensive experience in the fields of dermatology, anti-infective, cardiovascular, oncology, psychiatric, orthopedic, dental and wound care products. His experience also includes the advancement of medical ideas from research and development to commercial products, sourcing and securing financing, and negotiating sales, marketing and distribution partnerships with major healthcare corporations.

Prior to consulting, Mr. Gillis served as President and CEO of NUCRYST Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for 8 years. He took NUCRYST public on the NASDAQ and TSX in 2005. Mr. Gillis also served as President and CEO of Li Medical, a private medical device company, for 5 years. Prior to Li Medical, Mr. Gillis spent 15 years at Bristol-Myers Squibb where he worked in a number of divisions including Squibb, Westwood, Mead Johnson Pharmaceuticals, ConvaTec and Mead Johnson Oncology. At ConvaTec, he served as Vice President and General Manager of ConvaTec USA and later as Global Vice President, Wound and Skin Care.

A Boston native, Mr. Gillis has an MBA from Xavier University and a BA in Biology and Chemistry from Salem State College.

Steven C. Gilman, Ph.D.

Dr. Gilman joined Cubist in February, 2008 as Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer and is responsible for discovery research, non-clinical development, chemical development, pharmaceutical sciences, R&D program/project management and regulatory affairs. Prior to Cubist, Dr. Gilman was Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of ActivBiotics, Inc., a privately held antibacterials company, where he led the transition of the organization from early research/academic stage to focus on advanced product development/commercialization. Prior to ActivBiotics, he was Vice President and General Manager, Inflammation Franchise, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.  Earlier in his career, Dr. Gilman was responsible for pharmaceutical research units at Pfizer, Sterling Winthrop, Cytogen Corporation and Wyeth Laboratories in areas including chronic inflammatory diseases, cancer, transplant rejection, autoimmune diseases and bacterial infections. Dr. Gilman received his Ph.D. in Microbiology from Pennsylvania State University and completed his post doctoral training in the Department of Immunopathology at Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation (La Jolla, CA). He currently serves on the board Nextcea, Inc., an early-stage private company, and has previously served on the Boards of the Inflammation Research Association, Arthritis Foundation (Philadelphia) and the Biotechnology Advisory Board at Worcester Polytechnical Institute.  He has authored over 120 scientific publications, abstracts and book chapters and is an inventor on several issued US and international patents.

John K. Hennessy

As Executive Director and General Manager at AstraZeneca R&D Boston, Mr. Hennessy chairs the R&D Boston Site Leadership Team and is responsible for ensuring the delivery of quality services ranging from human resources to facilities and engineering that enable scientists on-site to focus on developing innovative therapies for cancer and infectious disease using powerful new technologies. He was responsible for overseeing the $100,000,000 expansion completed in Spring 2009, which brought the total size of the research facility to 382,000 square feet.

He has served on the MassBio Board of Directors since 2004, where he also serves as the Board representative to the Purchasing Advisory Group and on the executive committee of the Mass Life Sciences Education Consortium, a program of the MassBioEd Foundation. In Waltham, MA, where AstraZeneca R&D Boston is located, Mr. Hennessy is an active member of the Board of the Waltham/West Suburban Chamber of Commerce. He is a past president of the Waltham Partnership for Youth, and continues to serve on that Board of Directors.

Mr. Hennessy began his career in 1981 as an audit manager with Grant Thornton, CPAs.  After holding the position of Corporate Controller at Groundwater Technology Inc., he then served as Director of Finance for GTEL Environmental Labs, Inc.  Mr. Hennessy joined AstraZeneca in 1996 as Site Finance Director.

Mr. Hennessy is a member of the American Institute of CPAs, Financial Executives International and the Massachusetts Society of CPAs, and is a certified public accountant in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  He holds a Bachelor's degree in Accounting from the University of Indiana.

Timothy Hunt

Mr. Hunt is Vice President, Public Affairs at Biogen Idec. He oversees the company's product and media relations, employee communications and community relations efforts. He joined Biogen in 2002 as a Director, Public Affairs. He previously worked in government relations at GlaxoSmithKline and at the Washington, D.C. firm of Barbour, Griffith & Rogers. He also worked in the Washington, D.C. office of former Massachusetts Governor William Weld. Mr. Hunt received his B.A. in History & Philosophy from Boston College and his J.D. from The Columbus School of Law at Catholic University.

Peter C. Isakson, Ph.D.

As Divisional Vice President, Dr. Peter Isakson is responsible for the oversight and strategic development of Abbott's Immunology and Biologics research program, and is Site Head for the Abbott Bioresearch Center in Worcester.

Prior to joining Abbott, Isakson served in a number of positions of increasing responsibility at Searle/Pharmacia, from 1991 to 2003; his final position at Pharmacia was Vice President, R&D Strategy. While at Searle/Pharmacia he played a key role in the discovery and development of Celebrex, the first selective COX-2 inhibitor approved for treatment of the signs and symptoms of arthritis. He has extensive experience in experimental and applied pharmacology and immunology. Dr. Isakson received a Bachelor of Science degree from Weber State College in 1972 and a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Washington University in 1976 under the direction of Dr. Philip Needleman. Post-doctoral work was done at Southwestern Medical School in Dallas with Drs. Jon Uhr and Ellen Vitetta. Dr. Isakson has published over 120 peer reviewed articles and numerous book chapters. He is currently on the Scientific Advisory Councils for the Life Sciences at WPI and the Center for Drug Discovery at Northeastern University.

Edwin M.  Kania, Jr.

Mr. Kania is the Managing Partner and Chairman of Flagship Ventures. Prior to co-founding Flagship Ventures in 2000, he spent 15 years as Managing General Partner of OneLiberty Ventures and as General Partner at its predecessor firm, Morgan Holland Ventures. His direct investment experience covers over 100 companies. In addition, he has been intimately involved in the launch and development of more than a dozen companies as the founding and lead investor. Mr. Kania is currently a director of Aspect Medical Systems (Nasdaq: ASPM), EXACT Sciences (Nasdaq: EXAS), Acceleron Pharma, Interactive Supercomputing, INTIO, Parasol Therapeutics, Pervasis Therapeutics, TARIS Biomedical, Inc., TransMedics, and VisEn Medical. He is also a member of The Johhs Hopkins Medicine Alliance for Science and Technology Development Industry. He holds a degree in physics from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Laurie Bartlett Keating

Mrs. Bartlett Keating serves as Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Takeda Millennium Pharmaceuticals. Ms. Keating is responsible for setting the company's legal, intellectual property and corporate quality strategies and priorities.

Prior to joining Millennium, Ms. Keating was co-founder and first CEO of Hydra Biosciences, Inc., a venture backed biotech company focused on developing drugs targeting novel ion channels. After joining Millennium in 2004, Ms. Keating remained a member of the Board of Directors of Hydra through 2007. Prior to Hydra, Ms. Keating served as an executive at high growth technology companies, including serving as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Iomega Corporation, a data storage company, and Sybase, Inc., a software company that grew from a few hundred to 6,000 employees during Ms. Keating's tenure on the management team. Based on her leadership at Sybase, Ms. Keating was named as one of the 45 most influential in-house lawyers in the United States under the age of 45. Upon graduating from law school, Ms. Keating practiced law at McCutchen, Doyle, Brown and Enersen (now Bingham McCutchen) in San Francisco.

Ms. Keating has a Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley.

Dr. David Reif

Dr. Reif serves as Associate Director of Cancer Research at AstraZeneca and sits on the MassBio board as Chairman of the MassBioEd Foundation Board of Directors.

Dr. Reif received his B.S. in Microbiology from the University of  Michigan, and his Ph.D. in 1990 in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Utah State University in the laboratory of Dr. Steven Aust.  He completed his post-doctoral training with Dr. Roy Simmons at Fisons Pharmaceuticals (a predecessor company to AstraZeneca) in Rochester, NY. Dr. Reif then joined the staff at Fisons where he led drug discovery project teams in the areas of Parkinson's Disease, ALS, and stroke in addition to leading the biochemistry group. In 2000, he was the first to join a new cancer discovery group within AstraZeneca at their facilities in Waltham. Dr. Reif is currently an Associate Director and Portfolio Manager within the cancer department and works as a member of the cancer management team in managing the portfolio of novel projects for cancer therapy. He also is the current chair of the senior site management team.

David is also intimately involved in many community outreach activities.  He is a key liaison for AstraZeneca's involvement with the New England chapter of the American Cancer Society (Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk and the Hope Lodge), the Kenneth B. Schwartz Center, and the American Junior Academy of Sciences.  In addition, he currently serves as Chairman of the Lunenburg School Committee and sits on the Board of the Lunenburg Youth Soccer Association.

Steven Richter, Ph.D.

Dr. Richter is President & Scientific Director at Microtest. With his expertise in Sterilization Sciences, Dr. Richter founded Microtest in 1984 after a 5-year career as a microbiologist at the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. Under his leadership, Microtest has provided the medical device, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology industries with premier testing and manufacturing support. Dr. Richter received a B.S. degree in Microbiology from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, an M.S. degree Biological Sciences from the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, and a Ph.D. in Sterilization Sciences from Columbia Pacific University.

Amit K. Sachdev

Mr. Sachdev joined Vertex in July 2007 and currently serves as the Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Public Policy. In this role, he leads the company's corporate communications, government affairs and public policy functions.

Mr. Sachdev came from Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) where he served as Executive Vice President, Health. At BIO, he was the senior executive responsible for managing BIO's health policy department and its Governing Board. Mr. Sachdev is the former Deputy Commissioner for Policy at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) where he also held several other senior appointments from 2002 to 2005. At FDA, he oversaw the development of all FDA policies, regulations and legislation.

From 1998 to 2002, Mr. Sachdev served as Majority Counsel to the Committee on Energy and Commerce in the U.S. House of Representatives. From 1993 to 1997, Mr. Sachdev practiced law, first at the Chemical Manufacturers Association, and then with the law firm of Ropes and Gray. Mr. Sachdev received a B.S from Carnegie Mellon University, and a J.D. from Emory University School of Law.

Frank E. Thomas

Frank E. Thomas has served as a senior finance and operations executive with experience leading biotech and pharmaceutical companies from development through commercialization. He has successfully financed and managed companies through significant growth phases including their IPO's and in public markets, including transactions totaling over $250 million in investor capital. His operational experience includes identifying optimal commercialization strategies, portfolio management and establishing and executing strategic partnerships. Mr. Thomas has served on the MassBio Board of Directors since 2007.

Currently, Mr. Thomas serves as Chief Operating Officer of Molecular Biometrics, Inc.  From 2006 to 2008, Mr. Thomas served as President and Chief Executive Officer, and a member of the Board of Directors of Critical Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: CRTX). Prior to his appointment to CEO, Mr. Thomas served as Critical Therapeutics' Senior Vice President of Finance, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer from 2004 to 2006. Critical Therapeutics, Inc. merged with Cornerstone BioPharma to become Cornerstone Therapeutics in 2008. Mr. Thomas served in a variety of finance positions with Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: ESPR), a biopharmaceutical company, including as Chief Financial Officer. Esperion was acquired by Pfizer Inc. in 2004 for more than $1.3 billion. Mr. Thomas began his career with Arthur Andersen LLP where he was a certified public accountant. Mr. Thomas holds a Bachelor in Business Administration from the University of Michigan.

Michael D. Webb
Immediate Past Chairman

Mr. Webb has over 25 years of experience in healthcare and life sciences. Most recently, Mike was the CEO of Ascent Therapeutics, a venture-backed company he founded in 2006 that focuses on developing pepducins, a new biology platform for drug discovery. Prior to founding Ascent, he was the CEO of EPIX Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from 1994 through 2005. During this period, EPIX grew from a venture-backed startup to the world leader in discovery and development of pharmaceuticals for imaging with MRI, achieving worldwide approval for its lead product and completing numerous public financings and corporate partnerships including an IPO. Mr. Webb joined EPIX from CIBA, where he was most recently Senior Vice President, Worldwide Marketing and Strategic Planning of CIBA Diagnostics, responsible for global marketing, program management, corporate planning, business development and licensing. Prior to CIBA, Mr. Webb was a senior consultant at Booz, Allen & Hamilton, specializing in healthcare and life sciences.

Mr. Webb holds Bachelors degrees in both Biochemistry and Economics from the University of Kansas, Summa Cum Laude and an MA in International Relations from Sussex University in the UK, completing his thesis on "Pharmaceuticals Policy and the World Health Organization." In addition, Mr. Webb holds an MBA degree with honors from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. He is past Chairman of the MassBio board and also currently serves on the boards of Virtify, Inc. as Executive Chairman, the Kellogg Center for Biotechnology at Northwestern and is a Senior Advisor to Johnston and Blakely, a life sciences investment banking firm.

Charles Wilson, Ph.D.

Charles 'Chuck' Wilson, PhD serves as the Global Head of Strategic Alliances, leading the group responsible for externally oriented research at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR), the business unit of Novartis responsible for drug discovery and early clinical development. Partnering efforts include broad academic relationships to improve the understanding of basic disease processes, biotech collaborations focused on new drug discovery technologies, and in-licensing of compounds that have yet to reach clinical proof-of-concept.  Prior to joining Novartis, Chuck founded and led Archemix, a biotech company focused on the development of aptamers as therapeutics.  Responsible initially as its Chief Technology Officer for developing the company's technology platform and managing its drug discovery efforts, he moved into a business role focused on establishing partnerships with large pharma and biotech companies.  Before moving into industry, Chuck was an Associate Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz.  There he determined the first x-ray crystal structures of RNA aptamers bound to their targets.  Formally trained in structural biology and molecular biology, Chuck received his PhD from the University of California, San Francisco and his post-doctoral training in the Department of Molecular Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Lawrence S. Wittenberg

Mr. Wittenberg, a partner in Goodwin Procter's Technology Companies Group and co-chair of its Life Sciences Practice, focuses his practice in matters involving life sciences. He joined Goodwin Procter in 2005.

Mr. Wittenberg has been an active participant in the life sciences industry since the mid-1980s, and his practice focuses exclusively on biotechnology and other life sciences companies. His clients range in size from start-ups to public companies, and he assists them with a full range of corporate and intellectual property transactions, including venture capital financings, public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances, joint ventures, licenses and technology transfer agreements, as well as with general legal and strategic advice.

Mr. Wittenberg also represents venture capital groups with respect to their investments in life sciences companies and investment banks in connection with public and private financings. He has structured and negotiated corporate partnering transactions with numerous world-wide pharmaceutical companies.

Prior to joining Goodwin Procter, Mr. Wittenberg was a partner in the Business Practice Group at Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault, where he headed the Life Science Practice. Mr. Wittenberg holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a Bachelor's degree from Cornell University.

William P. McDermott

Bill McDermott is a partner in the law firm of McDermott, Quilty & Miller LLP.  He specializes in state and federal relations in the government affairs and business strategies practice.  With a wealth of public and private sector experience, Bill's primary focus is on governmental relations, regulatory law and procurement for clients involved in biotechnology, health care, real estate development and technology-based industries.

Prior to joining the firm, Bill was a founding member of ML Strategies and attorney with the law firm of Mintz, Levin.  Bill was Senior Vice President of Government Affairs at ML/MLS from 1990-2000.  Among his accomplishments, Bill has successfully directed a number of major initiatives through the Massachusetts State Legislature, including the passage of the Economic Stimulus I and II bills, the Stem Cell bill and the $1B Life Sciences Initiative.

Bill's extensive experience in public service includes his appointment as Chief Counsel to the Massachusetts State Senate's Ways and Means Committee in 1988, and his appointment in 1983 as Undersecretary and General Counsel to the Executive Office of Economic Affairs for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, where he completed his service as Acting Secretary.  Prior to returning to Massachusetts, Bill worked for the United States Congress in various capacities, including a position with Congressman Joe Moakley, former Chairman of the Rules Committee.

Bill has served as Legislative Counsel to the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council since 1994.

Bill received his Law Degree from American University and his Master's Degree in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.  He also completed graduate studies at Georgetown University and received his Bachelor's Degree from Boston College.  He is a member of the Massachusetts Bar.

About MassBio

Latest Updates